Blopturp... What is that?

Today I am going to talk about blopturp.  You may have seen it mentioned in a few of my previous posts and and wondered...

What is blopturp?  Blopturp is an oily mixture of  40% boiled linseed oil, 40% Penetrol and 20% turpentine.  Used, by some, in the restoration and preservation of historic wood windows.

Why would I want to use blopturp? Well, first it penetrates the wood and fills the pores which helps to protect against denting. It helps to condition and consolidate the wood.  It also retards checking, cracking and shrinking, helps to waterproof the wood and leaves a nice finish to which to apply oil based primer and paint.  All good things, when restoring historic wood windows.

How do I use blopturp?  Easy, just brush it on with a paintbrush.  After you have stripped off the old paint or finish and completed the sanding, brush it on your clean dry wood in successive coats until it quits soaking in.  After that wipe of the excess with a dry rag.  That's it!

Where do I get blopturp?  You mix it yourself from boiled linseed oil, Penetrol, and turpentine, all available in various sizes, at the local big box.   Although, for the gallon size of Penetrol I had to go to the paint store.

Let's take a quick look at the ingredients.

Boiled linseed oil (BLO) is made from linseed oil, a natural oil extracted from flax seed, and has been used as a wood finish for hundreds of years.  Back in the day linseed oil, which has a very slow drying time,  was boiled to make it thicker and dry faster.  Today the addition of chemical solvents accomplish same thing as boiling did back then.  BLO is also used as a paint binder for oil based paints and primers.

BLO does have its draw backs.  It yellows with age and some say it causes mildew growth.  I have used straight BLO on wood and wicker in the past and never experienced any mildew or ill effects.

Penetrol is a product made by Flood.   It is a paint/finish conditioner which helps to increase penetration and adhesion of other finishes.  In other words, it helps other finishes sink in and stick better.  Penetrol helps the BLO seep deeper into the wood.

Turpentine is a distilled resin obtained mainly, from live pine trees.  It is a solvent used in the thinning of oil based paints and producing varnishes.  Turpentine has many other industrial uses and in the past was used as a sort of "medicinal" cure all, and can still be found today in Vicks-Vapo-Rub. Turpentine helps to thin the BLO and I'm told helps to alleviate some of the yellowing that can occur from using BLO.


Do I have to use blopturp when I restore my old windows? No, this is the mixture I choose to use. Many window restorers have their own 'concoctions' that they use, some use a 50/50 mix of BLO and turpentine still others use nothing. The National Parks Service, the government entity charged with overseeing our national historic sites, recommends three applications of boiled linseed oil 24 hours apart, in their preservation brief on historic wood windows.  The choice is yours, blopturp, blotine, your own preferred mix or nothing.  Use what you are comfortable with and what fits your time and budget constraints. 

Before I end this post I feel I must mention a few words about safety.  These are dangerous chemicals and must be treated as such!  Read all safety precautions on the containers.  Become familiar with the first aid treatment for exposure.  Always store your mixed chemicals in clearly marked, appropriate containers.  Be aware of any flammable and combustible warnings and dispose of used items accordingly.  Finally, keep all chemicals out of the reach of children!

Remember SAFETY FIRST!

Well, that is it for today.  Please contact us if  you have any questions.

Holli

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Removing the Whole Window

Hey all, Holli again.

While this post is about removing the whole window in the back parlor,  I would like to start with how this came about. 

Friday we removed the remaining sash from the upstairs sitting area.  (See the post) This window is in really bad shape and is going to have to be completely pulled from the opening.  Not to mention the sashes are shot and not the originals.  This window is really going to be a job.  So, Friday night while we were considering our plan of attack I said, "you know that west window in the back parlor ought to be high on our list of repairs.  It leaks air, badly."  That was it, that's all I said.

Fast forward to Saturday.  We get up early to get a start on the day.  After coffee, Tom goes down and inspects the back parlor window I mentioned the night before.  This is where we will begin...

It doesn't look too bad from here.  Let's see what we have up close.

Looks like the plaster is falling away from the brick.  No, wait.  That's drywall.  Plaster on both sides of the window but drywall underneath and it's cracking away from the wall.  Not looking good now.

Tom came outside, where I was painting a bench and mumbled something about me being right about that window in the back parlor.  Next thing I know I turn around and he has two sashes outside in the work area.  He was taking apart the back parlor window. I was kind of annoyed because he knew I wanted to be there for any window work but we let that slide

By the time I realized what was going on this is what he had done, removed and tagged both sashes. 

 NOTE: It is a good idea to tag all your window panes before you remove them from the sashes. Use a piece of tape and mark the name or number you have given the window, which side of the glass inside or out, finally, mark an arrow to point to the top of the sash.  In this case Tom has also put an arrow pointing to the direction of the muntin.  It is important to try to get the right glass in the right sash in the right position.  Glass is technically a liquid.  It is in constant motion and settles over time making a 'unique home' for itself in each sash. While I don't imagine anything too earth shattering will occur if you mix up a pane or two of glass it would be a good idea to get in the habit of doing this important step.

After inspection we determined that theses sashes were not the originals.  The construction of the windows indicated they were made at a later period in time then when the house was built.

Back inside Tom was inspecting the rest of the window.  The sill is beyond repair and will need replaced.

Below is a view of the sill from outside.

The only problem?  To properly replace the sill the whole window has to come out. We spent the rest of the day deciding on what we were going to do and finishing other projects.  Tom spent the evening reading online about the construction of windows.

Sunday arrives and Tom is raring to go.  First thing to go is the apron. Tom carefully pried each end and the middle until he loosened it enough to get a peek inside.  The apron was nailed to the stool above it so he cut the nails with a sawzall. After that the apron came right off.

Next he removed the stool.  As far as I can recall this was just wedged into the bottom of the frame I don't remember removing any nails to get this out.  It was in there pretty tight and once again Tom turned to his trusty pry bar to assist.  Back and forth from one end to the other gently prying.  Care must be taken not to break off the two little pieces that wrap around under the window casings.

Next Tom carefully removed all the window casings using a block of wood to pry against when necessary to avoid damaging the window.

Finally, we were left with just the frame in the opening ready to slide right out.  Unfortunately, the lack of space dictated my evacuation and I was unable to get any photos of the actual frame extraction. There was nothing actually holding it in so it slid out with a little coaxing from Tom and our sons..  This is what we had when I was allowed back in.

 And this...

That is the whole window frame.  The bottom end is towards us.  There is supposed to be a piece of wood across there.  Oh look, there it is, rotted in the bottom of the brick opening.

It all went very well.  No unexpected twists, no damage or breaks to the wood.  The removal took about two hours.

Well, that's it for now.  Follow this link to our photos to see more of the work in action.  Let me know if you have any questions, and be sure to check back soon and see how this window is progressing.

Take care,

Holli

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Weekend Projects

Hello, Holli here this morning. 

Well, where do I begin?  Weekends are fast and furious around here. We have so many irons in the fire with the house we are constantly going from one project to the next.

As you can see the blog is looking much better.  I spent a bit of time watching tutorials on you tube and along with some excellent tutelage from Tom it really coming together.  Although, there is still much to do to get it where I want it.  

We finally finished up a re-purposed 'bed to bench' project we had going.  This was a donation to the National Transplant Foundation, for a silent auction benefit.  So there was an actual deadline for the project.  I am so not used to deadlines.

Here's how it came out. 

Pretty good, I think! 

Along with the bench we finally got the brick molding around the downstairs bathroom window sanded.  It looks pretty good and won't need anything more but some blopturp, primer and paint.

We also got a large chunk of the woodwork and trim stripped in the front parlor.  It appears that the previous owners put black shellac on it.  There was no care in the application and it is globbed and streaky looking.  Tom has replaced the missing plaster in this room and now needs to skim coat the walls but we want all the stripping done first.

Weekends also give Tom and me time to brainstorm over our projects and after some consideration we decided put the upstairs sitting area window project on hold.  Aww, I know how you were looking forward to it.  But don't worry, we have replaced that project with one just as exciting. We removed a whole window! How's that for fun?  And, it's coming up next.

Finally, I know I have promised some videos but there were some technical difficulties.  I was told that my I-phone would take good videos so I went with that.  Well, they are good but they are only as wide as the phone.  UGH!  I went out this morning and bought a video camera.  We'll see how it works.

Stay tuned for our next post...Removing a whole window.

Thanks for stopping by,

Holli

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Upstairs Sitting Area Window

Hello everyone,

Holli here.

Yesterday, Tom and I removed the sashes from the upstairs sitting area window.  Well, I should say sash, as one had already fallen out last year.  I got this on video and hopefully I can figure out today how to edit it and get it posted.  I also have some photos loaded on Picasa. 

Please bear with me as I learn this blogging bit.  If you have visited more than once you have noticed the layout changes daily.  There is a lot more to learn than I thought.  I should have been getting this blog going before we ever started the first window and now I am playing catch-up.  Don't be discouraged. We will get it all gussied up functional. I will get photos and videos posted along with all the other things I want to share with you.

Now, back to the window...

This is the worst window in the house, and probably not the greatest example to start out with, but being the worst, and the fact that it was already half out, made it on obvious candidate for repair.

This window is on the west side of the house, which is where all our "big problem" windows are located, but this window also had the added bonus of having water funneled straight onto it when it rained.

The box gutters failed, we imagine about 30 years before we bought the house.  The previous owners had them shoddily repaired a couple of times resulting in water being directed right onto this window.  At some point the sashes were completely replaced because the window we removed yesterday is nothing like the rest, in construction or style.

We arrived here to work one day last summer and the glass from the top sash had fallen out and was just sitting there on the ledge, two stories up.  We rescued the glass and boarded the window from the outside and made an interior storm window for it and just ignored it for a year.

So, now it's out and work has begun.  We carried the sashes outside where I used my heat gun to soften what little glazing putty was left for easier scraping. Then, I removed the glazing points and the glass.  Tom stashed the glass in a nice safe place. 

Using the heat gun I softened and scraped the paint and shellac left on the sashes.  After that I hand sanded the sashes with 80 grit sand paper.  Finally, I vacuumed them with the shop vac and wiped them down with denatured alcohol.  All that took about 2.5 hours from start to finish.  Please be aware though, this window did not have much paint left on it or, much glazing putty in it either.  It was also missing a rail so, the time is not very represntative of what it will actually take on a whole window.

Now, after all that work, we are not sure what we are going to do with this window as far as repairs go.  Tom, will have to make a new bottom rail for the top sash, as it has disappeared.  He will also have to make new stiles to make it look like the rest of the windows in the house.  That just leaves the top rail of the top sash and he might a well make that too, while he is at it. 

The bottom sash was intact but the bottom rail is in sad shape.  Fixable shape, but sad.  If this was an original window we would do the repairs but, since it is not, Tom will probably be making a new bottom rail for it also. 

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Downstairs Bathroom Window

Good morning,

It's Holli, and today I want to play catch-up real quick on where we are with this project.  Yesterday, I mentioned that we had already started.  I wanted to get this up and going before that happened but there will be plenty of windows so you won't miss anything.

We have removed the downstairs bathroom window, removed the glass, scraped the paint, sanded, filled checks and cracks, used epoxy to rebuild some of the missing wood, blopturped* it, and were ready to prime and paint when disaster struck. 

Tom was hanging the sashes in the workroom for the night and they fell, breaking the bottom rail of the top sash.  It broke in two places, in the middle of the rail and on the side of the rail where it becomes the tenon going into the mortice.

Luckily, I married a fix-it man and, we also spent the last year amassing tools for his workshop.  Tom went to the attic (there is a small bit of leftover lumber from when the house was built up there) and found a nice hunk of yellow pine, which is what the windows are made of, and reproduced the rail in his shop.

The rail has been reproduced now we need to install it.  In order to do that one stile has to come off the sash.  The sashes are held together with mortise and tenon joints and 1/4" wooden dowels.  But it just so happens that we are fresh out of 1/4" wooden dowels and Tom must make his bi-weekly trip to the hardware store.

I would like to stop and say, I realize that not everyone has a workshop full of tools or the skills to rebuild parts of the windows but not every window is going to require such repairs.  As a matter of fact, most windows can be repaired without resorting to replacing any parts, this was just one of those accidental cases that required it to make the window last another 100 years.  We could have glued and epoxied it back together and the probably had to redo it again in the future.  This is a job I would like to get right the first time.

So there you have it.  This is where we are.  I will get some of the photos up so you can see what we have done to date.

Today we will be removing the upstairs hallway window to begin working on that.  Stay tuned!

Holli

*Blopturp = boiled linseed oil, penetrol, turpentine.  We will discuss this more in a future post.

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Introduction

Hi,

I'm Holli, and together with my husband Tom, we own a 110 year old home, in the Old Louisville Historic District , in Louisville, Ky. I guess you would call the style 'Eclectic Italianate'.  It has columns on the porches, large stone lintels over the windows, dentil moulding at the roof line, but a large, gable peaked roof.

We bought the house last April and spent the first six months making it habitable. The same family had lived here since 1957 and it appears that all repairs and maintenance stopped when the husband died in 1981. We have lived here for a year and have done all the work ourselves, except for the new wiring and the box gutters.  

We have 29 windows in the house.  That does not include the windows that are in the doors or the transoms, just windows.  All the windows, like everything else in the house, need work. I joined this forum board http://www.oldhouseweb.com/forums/  when we started looking to buy an historic home. This is where I learned that there were people brave enough to restore their own windows.  Tom and me being the do-it-your-self types, decided we would restore our windows ourselves.  We spent the last year amassing the the tools and supplies necessary for this type of undertaking. We went to seminars, watched videos, read everything we could find on restoring historic wood windows.  I asked questions on forum boards and relayed info to Tom.

Now, a year later we have started this project and we come to the reason for me starting this blog.  While doing all my internet research there was so much information and yet so little. We had to piece together so much of what we know from so many different sources. I will admit  I felt less than confident when it came time to remove our first window. We would like this to become a resource for anyone thinking about restoring their own historic wood windows.  We want it to be a one stop place where you can see the actual job being done by actual homeowners and get get the information you need to do the job yourself and feel confident in your own abilities.

We will post a list of all the things we bought and or use to restore our windows, the costs and our opinions, when they apply. There will be photos and videos of our progress, links to other resources, and any other information pertinent to restoring and preserving historic wood windows.

We hope you come back often and track our progress and hopefully gain the knowledge and confidence to restore your own windows.

Holli and Tom

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